Yeah, I tend not to trust review sites very much, since a lot of the reviews seem to be written by screaming fangirls. Good manga reviews are particularly hard to come by.***

Anyway, Gankutsuou (The Count of Monte Cristo) is coming out on DVD in North America very soon; I watched Anime-Kraze's fansubs, and I thought it was an excellent adaptation of the book. It's not particularly faithful, in that it's set in the distant future, has gratuitous and tacky CG mecha, and you won't be rooting for Edmond in the end, but for a Gonzo production, it's surprisingly great.

Also, Genshiken is a great parody series -- it pokes fun at otaku culture, and while it's full of obscure references, it's also accessible to the casual viewer (especially if you watch a fansub -- they tend to have detailed notes).

Hmm... Yeah, those are the two I usually endorse when people ask about new series. I'll post more as I think of them. ^_^

***(I even started a blog to make some of my own... I've been writing reviews for several months now, to build up a buffer, and I just launched the site this week.</shameless self-promotion>)

Yeah... And a lot of reviewers try to be "unbiased", which to them seems to mean not expressing a negative opinion on something that's clearly crap. Many times, I've been suckered into wasting my time on something that was labeled as "charming" but turned out to be shoujo fluff, or something that was "philosophical" but which really just had a high WTF factor.

I think a good way to approach it would be to up front state some example animes of what the reviewer likes or dislikes to give the reader a gauge for how their tastes mesh. True, this relies on the reader to recognize at least some of those titles....but those people who are brand new to anime probably don't activly search for review sites, either.

Genshiken is cute, but because of certain obscure references, it can be boring at times. The best part is when the non-otaku girlfriend curls up into a ball under the blanket and asks her otaku boyfriend "I'm cosplaying as a puyo-puyo. Are you getting turned on?"

Yeah, it was obscure in places... Thankfully, there were translation notes.

Right now, I'm watching "Victorian Romance Emma", which has yet to be licensed, and it probably never will be, as it involves maids but no fanservice... Other than the point at which William goes to the library and finds Victorian "pornography", which means that the women's legs are showing... But anyway, it's not based on the Jane Austen novel, but it is a Victorian romance about a gentleman and the maid he loves, and while it's rather predictable, it's kind of cute. And it seems remarkably well-researched.

If you people are having trouble finding reviews for anime, I really have to recommend Newtype USA. I decided to get my hands on the first issue out of curiosity and after reading it I decided to get a subscription; it's that informative. Most of the articles are about current anime in Japan, so it does have a lot of spoilers (though you are warned about it at the start of the article if it does), and they have sections detailing evertyhing that's coming to the US both in anime and manga, with good, solid reviews (I have yet to disagree with any that I've had the chance to compare my opinion with). They also have some articles on techniques used by manga artists, both digital and traditional. They had this one two months ago precisely about the artist in "Victorian Romance Emma", who does everything 100% traditional, and... man, I'll never get there.

Only anime I'm watching at the moment is the mexican-dubbed version of "Ghost Stories". I emphasize the "mexican" because I read on Newtype the american version is getting its dialogue changed a lot because the american director thinks it's boring; thus, the mexican dub is truer to the original dialogue. I like the series because it has a simple "every day" style that clashes with the detailed monsters and spirits that haunt the episodes. Also, they like to take their mythology seriously and the creatures usually have a reason for being where they are. It's not a terror-inducing anime, nor is it jam-packed with action, but I find it satisfying. Hmmmm, now that I think about it, the latest NewType DVD has the first episode of this series, I'll check it out later and see how it differs...

Faith is what credulity becomes when it finally achieves escape velocity from the constraints of terrestrial discourse- reasonableness, internal coherence, civility, and candor. Thus, the men who commited the atrocities of September 11 were neither cowards nor lunatics of any sort, but Men of Faith- perfect faith- and this, it must finally be acknowleged, is a terrible thing to be.

Wow, that sounds awesome. Do they have manga techniques in every issue? Is there a magazine dedicated to manga techniques? I usually don't need reviews on series in Japan because most of it is fansubbed for at least half the series before they are licensed.

Keffria wrote:Hm, I think my local anime store carries Newtype USA; I should see how much they charge.

The magazine sells for around $10-$12 bucks per issue. If you get a subscription, it's less, plus you get the previews DVD every month, it has anywhere from one to three full episodes of different anime as well as aboutr a dozen trailers or so, of anime, movies, live action and games.

wp wrote:Wow, that sounds awesome. Do they have manga techniques in every issue? Is there a magazine dedicated to manga techniques? I usually don't need reviews on series in Japan because most of it is fansubbed for at least half the series before they are licensed.

They do have techniques for every issue, but most are digital imaging techniques, not manga per se, and usually are just a couple of pages. It's still very useful; I've picked up a number of techniques from there. As for manga tutorials, the best one around seems to be the "How to Draw Manga" series; the reviews say they give real insight and are not all about simply copying the drawings inside until you get it right.

Faith is what credulity becomes when it finally achieves escape velocity from the constraints of terrestrial discourse- reasonableness, internal coherence, civility, and candor. Thus, the men who commited the atrocities of September 11 were neither cowards nor lunatics of any sort, but Men of Faith- perfect faith- and this, it must finally be acknowleged, is a terrible thing to be.

I don't know about *new* anime, but I've been following Bleach on Adult Swim recently and it's really cool. Then again, I don't really know what sort of stories you go in for. Bleach strongly reminds me of YuYu Hakusho, which was the second series I got into. (The first being Inuyasha. )

If you like shojo a bit more, but still like a lot of action, I'd recommend Kaliedo Star. It's about a girl from Japan who goes to America to join a special circus called Kaliedo Stage.

Huh, other than that, I really haven't been watching much anime recently. I've been focusing more on manga. Tsubasa and XXXHolic are actually pretty rare in that they are CLAMP manga that I can actually follow for extended periods of time.

K-Dawg, every time you respond to anything in this forum, it counts as a necro.

This anime is so frickin' weird but by far the best this season. When Kamina and Simon fused together, that was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. One thing I like about the animators of this series is they don't take it too seriously. The animation is also very fluid and detailed.

Forum-goers who are anime inspired also have a lot of other interests, so this particular forum is too restrictive. Anime fans who don't have a lot of other interests just don't go on forums. I guess they'd rather watch anime than surf a forum.